republicans are saying no, we don't want this. you could see a deal on the table that puts them on the spot. >> puts the pressure on the table. >> yes. >> the house was forceful in their opposition to this, and i think it will be interesting to see, one of the things, you know, back in 2011 when they were dealing with the debt limit, it was mitch mcconnell that came up with this concept for how they eventually dealt with the debt limit. it is interesting we are getting to hear these rumblings of mitch mcconnell trying to float that idea. >> and of course john maynard forces reelection in 2014. it is a little different this time. >> thank you very much. >> thank you.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> president obama it is in newtown, conn. tonight. according to the white house, he has been meetings with the families of the victims of the school shooting. he is expected to be the final speaker at an interfaith vigil this evening. we will have live coverage right here on c-span. we will take a look at some comments from this morning about what the government should do to prevent more shootings. >> we have the same courtesy of the newseum. "day of grieving." the employees of the school, all women. the children all around the ages

of six or seven. more shooting victims. residents gather to find comfort and pray. and national newspapers also digging into the story. the new york times saying -- victims there, white and friends with a background. there is a detail of how teachers helped students three crisis. other articles looking at the alleged killer and the victim's. and another story today -- "the justice department shows ideas about background checks." at after the shooting of gabrielle giffords and others of

a supermarket in 2011, the justice department expanded the background checks to reduce the likelihood of guns falling into the hands of the mentally ill and criminals. the election campaign heated up and congress conducted a politically-charged investigation into the operation fast and furious gun trafficking case, according to people familiar with the internal deliberations. looking at some other stories in the news -- the washington post also covers that keeping the justice department had to toughen gun laws ahead of the election. that is the headline. much of the effort was put on hold until after last month's election. according to several officials who knew about the effort. in here is what the story also says. the guns were not on the table

according to one anonymous source because everything was shut down in that debate. as we dig into this year, it says the recommendations were discussed with attorney general older and his deputies. there was no indication it was sent to the white house. the recommendations could have had an impact on the access to guns for drug users, criminals, or people with a history of mental illness. host: let's go to the phones and hear from our first caller this morning. greg? caller: good morning, how are you? they talk about needing to have background checks and all of this stuff, but that is not the problem. what it is, i will tell you. they say background checks? it is not background checks, it

is your personality, your temperament. i do not carry a weapon if your personality is short. i do not carry a weapon because i know i have a short fuse. i could buy as many weapons as i want. i do not have a criminal record. that background check stuff, they need to come up with something different. that is just an excuse. that is bull. they need to come up with a real thing. it is your mentality. i am 51 years old now. i know that i have a short fuse. they need to come up with a short fuse thing. host: how would you do that? how would you test that for people?

caller: i do not know. that is up to the lawmakers and stuff. a background check, i would pass any background check, i have no criminal record. so, they have to come up with something else. host: should the friends or family weigh in on that? should they have a say on who gets a gun? caller cut that is so funny about this whole thing, these people are supposed to be from a nice town. why do you need all of those weapons? host: john, good morning. caller: good morning. the whole problem is being misdirected that the guns. everyone of these people in these mass shootings has been under psychiatric treatment. the whole pharmaceutical industry.

they have 50% of the kids in school taking prozac. they are creating these monsters. if someonematter went into a movie theater with 5 gallons of gasoline -- host: who is creating those problems? my grand -- caller tell my grandson's schoolmate jump off the 205 and caused a big traffic jam. in fredericksburg. he was taking psychiatric drugs prescribed by the school system. host: prescribed by a doctor? caller cut a prescribed prozac and ritalin. kid's going to school cannot read. they should redirect where the problem is coming from. it is not from the guns.

host: here is a different opinion on twitter. host: here is the headline of "the new york times." host: nancy, our next caller.

independent line, michigan. who is this on? society or government? caller: it is the role of everyone in the united states. i am getting rid of my guns. my husband was a police officer. i am getting rid of all of his guns. i do not have the need for them and i do not think that it worked out for -- worked out well for her either. host: that is your personal choice. do you think that the government should follow up on that? should society do what you're doing? caller: it is up to every individual. how has this affected all of us? i think we should all work together to try our best to prevent this from happening ever again.

personally, my choice is to get rid of all of the handguns and all of the weapons that were my husband's. the guns are not needed. it is my role, it is your role, it is the role of the government. host: democratic line, manhattan. good morning. cecil, what do you think? caller: all of the people that were harassing teachers about the price of what they charge their states for the work that they do, who would want to be a teacher in a situation like this? all of those people saying that the teachers overcharged us and that the unions break the bank of the state?

they should think about what a teacher has to go through. the kid's mother, the news lately was saying that she was some kind of survivalist, thinking the economist -- that the economy would crash. and that is why she had all these guns in the house. she has a mentally disturbed son with guns in the house? what is her choice? you know,what she thinking about? she obviously has a problem along with her son. someone should have come to earth, saying that we know where you are thinking about. look at the results. host: you live in new york city. what you think about mayor bloomberg and his opinion on the gun issue? caller code generally what mort zuckerman was talking about -- caller code generally put more zuckerman was talking about, how many times has he been caught at -- stopped and frisked

on the street on his way to an important meeting? now they want to go through his pockets? he thinks that stop and frisk is ok? i will take my chances with the people in my community rather than a police organization pulling me over and the time they feel like it. host of this, and comes to us from facebook. you can join this conversation by looking for c-span. a few of our viewers and listeners are listening -- to hang in.

host: our next caller is an independent in the vienna. -- in louisiana. good morning. caller: my comment, and it is not probably going to be popular, but my stance is that ever since the schools became drug free, more drugs than ever have been handed out to kids. the principal and the nurse in the school, whether it is packs all, ritalin, whatever. -- paxil, whether it is ritalin, whatever. find a school shooting that did not have something to do with a kid raised on these drugs. you cannot find them. i promise you, whenever it comes down to, you will find out this kid was as well. host: but we do not know a thing

about that, do we? caller: we do not. host: t think the medication is causing the problem or that it is being given to the young people because they have a problem? host: whenever you do not allow the child to be active and vibrant and what they are and you try to change them into a bunch of zombies, eventually of what happens is that it works opposite from any other amphetamine of a kid, when they're little. that is why you can give a child coffee and they will go to sleep. suddenly they hit 12 years old and it starts working like the name. host: this comment is from twitter -- host: cheryl, democratic line, good morning. caller: how are you this morning?

host: what is your solution? caller: is certainly sad, the state of affairs when it comes to mental illness. i am a former psychiatric -- former psychiatric nurse. i saw ronald reagan close all the hospitals in california. and the mental institutions. there is just not enough done for the mentally ill for us to determine what course of action to take. it is very sad. host: would you do to improve this situation? more government funding for facilities? more outpatient help? caller tell all of the above.

it is so important, there are so many people whose lives are fragmented by mental illness. it is a very sad situation, having worked in the field for many, many years. it should be obvious, to be kinder to people, for one thing. to be able to identify people who are at risk of becoming ill. host: do you see resources for families? is there a good place to go to get help? caller: certainly to their physicians, but oftentimes that is not enough. people cannot -- people can be almost frightened by the prospect of anyone in their family or in society being truly l and frustrated.

-- ill and frustrated. host: this piece chronicles the shootings that happened in 2012, lead to -- leaving at least 88 dead. the tragedy in connecticut is described as indescribable. 27 people, including 18 children were shot to death. it goes on to say -- 16 of the mass shootings this year, including one in georgia at a korean health spa back in february. it goes through other incidents. jackson, tenn., at a nightclub. a high school in rural ohio. a psychiatric hospital in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. it goes on from there. we are talking about preventing shootings. is there a role for the government or society?

what do you think? republican line, silver lake. caller, hello, c-span. -- caller: hello, c-span. it has to do with a lot of things. it sounds like this man at 20, he did not have a strong father figure in his life, which should have. there is so much of that going on in this country today. host: what does that mean for you, paul? caller: i have three boys. i have taken my son's hunting and we have been shooting firearms since they were seven. they have never regretted it or had any trouble. they are raised operate.

-- they are raised up right. i have a strong connection with my children. and i always will have as long as i live. i hope that they do with their children as well. you have got an incident down there that happened -- this happens on the streets of chicago every week. we are being blamed for it by having uncontrollable gun laws. they say that this lady was a survivalist. this is true, but we have an active dictator in office. host: where did you read that she was a survivalist? what does that mean to you? caller: i am afraid that this country is headed down the road to communism. host: i am trying to find out where you read that she was a survivalist. what does that mean to you?

where did you find that? caller: i have every suspicion that he is going to pull something in this country that will shake the country to the court. -- to the core. host: ok, well here is an msnbc story touching on something our last caller talked about. nancy lanza is being described as a survivalist and someone with a collection of guns. they have that report on msnbc. here is how the father of the gun man responded. in the n.y. times -- the father said "we, too, are asking why." cory, welcome. what is your take on this?

caller: even from when i was going -- growing upper, a lot of young kids are being put on all types of medications and stuff. how they might find later that a lot of these people who are doing things like this are on drugs. some kind of drugs. because guns do not kill people. people kill people. that is the bottom line. weapons are for a reason. maybe there is an over abundance of them. i think that more people are on drugs than ever before in society today. back in 1950 of's, they did not

have these problems going on. in the 1930's and 1940's. people were out having a good time with regular things that happened in the world. host: here is a comment from twitter. postal information about the guns in play from "the washington post." host: leon, maryland. caller: good morning. i think that the people of the united states are waking up to understand that the second

amendment was put in place when we shot muskets and a man had a six shooter. i am quite sure that the four fathers of this country were not -- the forefathers of this country were not thinking about weapons like that when they decided upon the second amendment. -- assault weapons like that when they decided upon the second amendment. another thing, they have so much violence in the digital games. all this violence has been exposed to children at this what you -- young age. host: this is from twitter -- host: you can join the twitter conversation by going to

twitter.com/c-spanwj. from "the washington post," this could be a tipping point for gun control advocates. they believe that the massacre there will do what so many other recent mass killings have failed to do, force president obama and congress to take action. obama came under increased pressure this week and from members of his own party to call for stricter limits on gun buyers. republican line, illinois. kyl, good morning. caller: i have an incredible issue with what has been going on with this. it has been so sick.

>> looking at some other stories in the news. we will be talking about this later on this morning. it is the so-called fiscal cliff issue before the year turns over. here is the headline in politico. looking at other news -- secretary of state hillary clinton can -- recovering from a concussion. she suffered a concussion after

painting and striking her head, according to the state department. as a result, she will not testify on thursday as scheduled about the attack on the american embassy in benghazi, libya. she is widely expected to be a presidential candidate in 2016. she became dehydrated. and the new york times looks at medicare and issues that may be coming up -- the single longest term contributor -- no cohort of americans -- this is part of the dead reckoning series the new york times is during. we will hear more from c-span

radio about who will be on the sunday talk shows. there are leaders from connecticut on the sunday talk shows including senator blumenthal, a democrat. also governor dannel malloy. the connecticut governor will also be on that face the nation. right now, talking about preventing these mass shootings. how can the government help. how can society help? good morning. >> good morning. caller: i would like to bring up the kids and the violent video games again. they sit there and play them daily. these are not the real consequences of taking out these guns. it just becomes part of the culture. what about that idea?

host: mike, what would you do? would you ban them? make them available only to people of a certain age? caller: the age limit would be fine. maybe get that to go outside and play. host: so, the roles for parents in society? caller: yes, ma'am. that is a real legitimate thing to look at, i think. host: this is a written in -- host: steve is an independent caller in indianapolis. good morning, steve. caller: my comment is that in israel they have an-16's at the school's."

-- m-16's and gun lockers in the schools'. and the solution should be, i believe, that we need to actually gunned down these terrorists. we have done a free school zones 1,000 feet from most communities. they are just inviting tourists. we spend billions at the airport for security and around the world we have tried to police the world. we cannot put officers in the schools or allow teachers to carry guns in most districts. there is one district in texas that allows teachers to be armed. but i think we need to stop providing these people to our schools. we need to start putting these terrorists in body bags. host: you would like to see more liberal policies in terms of carrying guns into places like schools? caller: absolutely.

the gunmen would never go to a police station. the gunmen would never go to an airport if he knew that he would be confronted with stiff resistance. the department of justice did a study, their number one fear is approaching an armed victim. that is their number-one fear for prisoners. instead of demonizing dealing with the guns, we need to protect our women and children, protect our communities by designating -- this is a gun free school zone? you are inviting terrorists and everyone who is deranged to come into your school to do whatever they want. they know that women do not like guns and take guns. that is my comment. we need to stop acting like gun free schools will fix this. host: in terms of women not liking guns, in the news this morning we saw that the mother

of the shooter was the owner of the guns and is being called a gun enthusiast. so? that might dispel your idea that women are not people who use guns. mark, miami, florida. caller: good morning. your first name? host: al-libi. caller: -- libby. caller: commenting on that last part, i think it is interesting and unfortunate that a woman would be in a state like connecticut, a pretty economically sound stage, like the south side chicago or east st. louis. that she was driven to be in possession of these weapons. her husband was apparently an accountant and work for a large corporation.

as americans we all have the prerogative to own weapons. my observation is that maybe the sun, from an unfortunate psychological standpoint, was trying to make the comment on the fact that his mother was the gun toting person in the household. my personal observation is that out of all of these last shootings, going to the 60's and 70's, the worst we ever heard was someone being in a fistfight. i do not know how we transitioned into this super violence. the observation that i would make, they resort immediately to weapons rather than fists. i think it is kind of a -- it is a way to avoid patent, physically and psychologically. i also think it is symbolic of

what our government does. we drop bombs on people. there could also be a connection to that. i think it is unfortunate. i would close with this -- we claim to be free people living in the united states, but if we were to show, and i would care not to look at it myself, the children that were killed, or the marines killed in fallujah, i think it would be alarming to all people, 30 years old, 50 years old, 60 or 20. i do not want children to see it. but i think it would put an end to all of this violence. 300 million guns in the country in a population of 300 million citizens. as a solution for the right wingers, i appreciate your

composure. as a civilized male raise my civilized women, i am quick to remit that i will vote for hillary when she -- i'm quick to admit that i will vote for hillary when she runs for president. we need more stability in the world. the female indian chiefs, as has been observed, led a more civilized world prior to the caucasians coming here. let's give women a chance. i appreciate his mother having the option to on weapons. i would question her desire to have them. it is her prerogative. i do not know. host: we will leave it there, marc. pamela, twitter.

host: here is a story out of michigan. "connecticut gun laws allow permit holders to have handguns in schools but fall short of measures approved by michigan lawmakers. they must also give the gun owner permission."

host: texas, san antonio, good morning. caller: my spin on the guns is that we have got to get rid of the 2, 2, 3, and the high- powered rifles. i know that i spent 27 years there and i know the difference. -- in the military and i know the difference. the speed that the bullet hits your shoulder, they would just be wounded.

these band-16's, you could hit them in the hand. -- m-16's. the speed of the bullet just explodes. i would estimate that even if the guy was using the old semi- automatic, people would be killed. -- half the people would be killed. i know it is not much, but if we could just get away with the assault rifles, it would hold down the massacres, like what happened in the school. only half would have been killed. from my knowledge of weapons over 27 years, it is different. you hear that a person is 45

with a bullet, it is so slow it will not even penetrate you or knock you down. it gets to the person behind you. that is what i would like to see. i know that we will never do away with guns in america, but we can do away with assault weapons. i have seen people shot in the shoulder that have died within seconds. host: here is a look at a piece from "the new york times" this morning. host: that is one opinion. here is what mary says on twitter.

host: jeremy, independent. cheryl, arkansas. caller: good morning. i wanted to pretty much second the old boy from florida, mark. he said everything i was thinking. i watched a really good documentary on this last night. it was called "murder by proxy." pretty much what it is is our society and how we treat each other, say the government's, it is horrible, how can we talk like that? host: what would you do to fix it? caller: i do not know. i have not got a clue. i can see what it is. i see it in churches.

even whenever i go to church down there, like being in the political season, it was not what church was when i was a kid. host: dennis, democratic caller, maryland. caller: first of all, thank you for the opportunity to get in on this. i will date myself as far as age. back in 1968, when washington, d.c. exploded with riots and whenever, the first sent in the national guard, who could not handle it. president johnson called in the second airborne. -- 82nd airborne. the story is that he put a trooper at every door in the schools. one trooper for the whole school. i went to eastern high school, it was a very large school. i walked out that day and the trooper was standing there in

full combat gear. flak jacket, gloves, the whole works. he had a fixed bayonet. there was no trouble in the whole school because of that one airborne. now, the fire is already raging out here. we are awash in guns. my solution to the problem, i am nervous, but my solution to the problem is that we are going to have to arm neighborhood militias. we have to protect the most innocent of the innocent. you do not get in there and start talking about gun control on capitol hill, they will not do anything. we need to arm the neighborhood citizens who are capable of handling these automatic weapons.

let the criminal element and mental element know that if they walk into a school, a 50% of a chance they might not walk out with their lives and it will not be from suicide. the israelis have it right. they know that they have a constant threat. we have a constant threat in this country. from nuts in these guns. we have to order and stop it first, then we talk about how to keep our kids and public say. but the bottom line is we have to come up with a citizen militia. the president should do that to the justice department by deputizing certain people in the neighborhood and the schools. it cannot be just one security guard. he could be clock. he could be watched by the terrorist.

the terrorist who is doing this. you have to have more than one, females are ready to go down with dedicated citizens in these great neighborhoods who are armed and ready. they just need to be called upon. host: let's look at some other stories in the news. this is from "the hill." there are reports that john kerry will be nominated for secretary of state. host: we are seeing other news outlets reporting the same thing. "abc news, saying that john " kerry is to be nominated." that is the headline on some of the leading news sources this morning.

>> and tonight we'll bring you live coverage from newtown, conn. where president obama is scheduled to speak. here you can see at the stage and a podium set up for the president at newtown, high- school, an interfaith vigil for those killed at sandy hook elementary school. earlier, the president met with families of the victims of -- families of the victims and first responders. and also expected tonight at the vigil, conn. governor dannel malloy. in the audience, we have seen senator joseph lieberman and richard blumenthal, and incoming senator chris murphy. he is currently a congressman. new town is in his district. -- newtown, conn. is in his district. a number of them speaking since

the shooting happened on friday.

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>> you are watching live

coverage here on c-span where in newtown, conn. at newtown high school, president obama will be speaking. he has been speaking with family members of victims at the mass shooting at sandy hook elementary school. he wrote his own speech tonight that he is going to be delivering. this is the fourth time president obama has had to travel to visit the victims of a mass shooting. in 2009, their war of the shootings at fort hood, texas. in 2010, the shootings in tucson that when did representative gabrielle giffords. and most recently, the movie theater and shooting in aurora, colorado. this tragedy.ring during his radio address, not yesterday president obama said as a nation we have endured far

too many of these tragedies the last few years. we will be bringing you his remarks. this is an interfaith service. we will hear scriptures from rabbis, priests in attendance and some of the families of the community gathering here tonight. you are watching live coverage here on c-span.

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>> we are bringing you hear a lot of the inside newtown high school's auditorium tonight, the site of tonight's a vigil for the victims of the shootings. we will hear from president obama, who wrote his own remarks. we will also hear from governor dannel malloy. there is a somewhat surreal

atmosphere, they are saying. several hundred people attending tonight's. a large number of elementary school-aged kids with their parents. some are bringing their toys in, grieving family members, community members. we do have senator lieberman, senator blumenthal, senator chris murphy, all attending today. they were speaking over the weekend about gun control legislation in light of the shooting on friday and in recent months other shootings. we will hear from reverence, erends, ho are -- rev rabbis who are going to be making remarks. we will hear from governor dannel malloy as well as president obama as the speaking gets under way here in newtown

tonight.

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♪ [applause] >> on behalf of the newtown interfaith clergy association, i welcome all of you.

we needed this. we needed to be together. here in this room, in the gymnasium, outside the doors of the school, in living rooms around the world. we needed to be together. to show that we are together. and united. we gather in such a moment of heartbreak all of us here in newtown. we gather especially mindful of family and friends and neighbors among us. who have lost loved ones by an act of unfathomable violence and destruction. would gather to grieve together, to care for one another, to weep

and to remember, and to declare in our many voices that the darkest days of our community shall not be the final word heard from ross. -- heard from us. we will care for one another with our love and our compassion. in those early hours of the crisis, it became clear to we clergy and faith leaders here in newtown that an initial community response would be needed, that we would need to come together. and so we asked our first select woman and superintendent if it might be possible for the clergy to gather the community here at newtown high school, to continue and to begin what will be for

many along journey through grief and loss. we are not here to ignore our differences or diminish our core beliefs, which define our many different faith traditions, but to offer our love, care, and prayers to our families and our community. we wanted to offer a our voices in the form of words from our sacred text and prayers from the depths of our being. but we also wanted to gather together in silence. so, that is what we will do. we will have a time for sharing and for prayer, and also a time for silence in between, so that all of us can pray as we wish and think about what it is that is most important to us. now, there is a reason why all of the clergy are sitting down

there and not up here, and we hope you don't get tired of seeing us take the long walk up to this podium. but we wanted to have a symbolic gesture that we ourselves are with you and among you in these coming days. that we are all in this together. we want you to know that our care for this community extends beyond the halls of our various houses of worship and the people would then them. we are here for all of newtown. that means you from the catholic church, in the midst of your tremendous grief, there is our rabbi with the torah in hand to give you comfort and do what

ever he can to support you in the coming days. and those of you from the temple, you have the services of a japanese-american minister and the songs of john wesley. we have done so -- we of muslim brothers and sisters ready to offer prayers and acts of compassion. lutherans offering ministry of grace and jesus christ to independent christians and two others -- to others. and all of those willing to offer words and comfort to those of. it seems now more than ever we need each other. that is why we even have our politicians sit down there as well. it is a sign and a symbol and a reminder to all of us that we're in this together.

so, now, let us come together. let us pray. let us listen. and let us seek the comfort of our various faiths, drawing from words and prayers'. if you're not come up for i am with you. be not dismayed for in your got. i will strengthen you, i will uphold do with my victorious hand. god is with us. god's love unites us. god's love steadies' us. god's spirit comforts boss. blessed be our god for ever and ever, amen.

>> i offer you this prepare -- this prayer for my heart to your

heart. on behalf of all of your children, all of your loved ones. the hebrew memorial prayer. please rise. [singing in hebrew]